Dear Colleagues –
It’s hard to believe that two months have
flown by since the 4th International
Bemisia and International Whitefly Genomics
workshops were held in gorgeous Duck Key, Florida. We
had a truly wonderful time organizing the sessions and
planning events and trust that you had a memorable time
as well in the sunny Florida Keys. We wish to thank all
of you for making the effort to join us and wish that
this meeting met with your hopes and expectations. We
would also like to thank the many sponsors of the
workshops who were so generous with their support which
afforded us the opportunity to make the event very
spectacular. A special thank you to all the session
leaders who did such a fantastic job organizing the five
sessions that covered a broad spectrum of whitefly
research including biotypes and genomics, biology and
ecology, damage potential and vector relations, chemical
control and resistance management, and IPM and
biological Control. Our objective was to provide a forum
for scientific exchange in a pleasing setting that would
benefit all attendees and the communities they
represent. The venue was extraordinarily warm and
inviting with numerous networking functions that allowed
attendees to interact, share lessons learned, spend time
re-connecting with colleagues or forging new
collaborations. Please take a moment to view all the
great photos from the two workshops on the website:
www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/bemisia. You may also
download both the group photos for printing at your
convenience.
Invited speakers from around the world
presented research and management tactics conducted in
their respective geographic regions and areas of
expertise. Sessions were arranged with a slate of
invited speakers followed by discussion, comments, and
questions. Attendance was truly international with more
than 120 people from 25 different countries
participating. The Bemisia workshop included 45
formal lectures and nearly 60 poster presentations which
are slated to be published in the Journal of Insect
Science along with the whitepaper produced as a result
of the whitefly genomics workshop. The genomics workshop
was well attended with representatives from eight
different countries and all participants cooperated in
laying the groundwork for a Whitefly Genomics
Whitepaper. Attendees from both workshops included
government and university researchers and policy makers,
extension personnel, regulatory officials, members of
industry, growers and marketers, and students.
Those workshop participants more inclined
toward practical agriculture were able opt for a field
trip to Homestead, the most southern agricultural region
of mainland U.S. After a stop at the Miami-Dade County
Cooperative Extension Office to pick up our agent
guides, we headed out to meet with a local tomato grower
who described his battles with B. tabaci and
TYLCV. Unfortunately for the grower but fortunately
for the participants, there was plenty to see. The next
stop was Costa nurseries, a grower of ornamental plants
producing their own Beauvaria bassiana. A tour
through the production facility was provided by
technician Teresa Vazquez who brought the rustic but
practical technology from her home Cuba. Following
lunch at the Tropical Research and Education Center, an
experiment station run by the University of Florida,
entomologists Catherine Mannion and Dakshina Seal
described their programs and showed off their labs and
study plots. Following a tour of the Center’s tropical
plant collection the group loaded up for the trip back
south to Duck Key.
Colleagues from China, Morocco and Greece have expressed
interest in hosting the next Bemisia workshop. We
have requested a short proposal from each and will soon
forward these to workshop attendees for their input on
the 5th International Bemisia workshop venue and
date.
Sincerely,
Philip A.
Stansly
University of Florida/IFAS
Southwest Florida REC
Immokalee, Florida USA |
Cindy McKenzie
USDA/ARS
US Horticultural Research Laboratory
Fort Pierce, Florida USA |
ANNOUNCING:
The Book - Bemisia:
Bionomics and Management
We are pleased to report that
Springer Science
and Business Media has agreed to publish the volume
Bemisia: Bionomics and Management.
Click here for a description and outline of the
planned book.
Presentation Recap:
A total of 105 abstracts
were submitted for this joint endeavor, and the Bemisia
Workshop featured 45 oral presentations and 60 poster
presentations.
Click here to view the
final agenda of Speaker Presentations.
Click here to view the
final Directory of Poster Presentations.
The
Bemisia Workshop entailed FIVE in-depth sessions
focusing on the following Bemisia topics:
-
Biology and Ecology
-
Damage Potential and
Vector Relations
-
Chemical Control and
Resistance Management
-
IPM and Biological
Control
- Biotypes and
Genomics
The opening plenary featured three excellent keynote
presentations:
-
Bemisia Research:
Past, Present & Future – Dan Gerling, Professor,
Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat
Aviv, Israel – and – Paul De Barro, Stream Leader,
Preparedness, CSIRO Entomology, Queensland,
Australia
-
Invasion and
Response: Impacts of Bemisia on Worldwide
Agriculture – Lance S. Osborne, Associate Center
Director, Professor, IPM-Biological Control of
Insects & Mites, Mid-Florida Research & Education
Center, Apopka, FL, USA
- US Actions –
Osama A El-Lissy, Director, USDA-APHIS-PPQ,
Riverdale, MD, USA
Sponsor Recognition:
We would like to express
special appreciation to the 15 sponsors whose
contributions made the 2006 Workshop possible. Please
join us in thanking them by taking a moment to visit
their web sites.
We hope you will make plans to
join us for the next International Bemisia
Workshop. If you would like to see what the workshop
entails, click below to proceed to the original 2006
workshop web site.
There were many memorable moments experienced during the
workshop. Click on the links below to view
photographs taken throughout the event.
|
|
(after
opening the gallery, click the green arrow
to start the slide show) |
The
5th International Bemisia Workshop will be held in 2009 in
Guangzhou China.
Congratulations to Dr. Fang-Hao Wan and Dr. Shunxiang Ren
and their teams at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences and the South
China
Agricultural
University for a successful campaign. Please
![[OCI Home Page]](../../soils/hydricsoils/oci_home.GIF){kind=small}
